Emmanuel Adebayor Affair: Justice, What Justice

It used to be a proud boast of English justice that one was innocent until proven guilty. Another principle was the judicial decision makers were not influenced by outside comment especially from those in High Office before or during the judiciary process. Obviously the English football disciplinary processes and the people who run our game or are involved in it have never heard of such principles.

Let us look at the way Emmanuel Adebayor has been treated in this respect by the FA, the Premier League, Arsenal Football Club, the Police and the vast majority of tawdry hacks that have put pen to paper in at attempt to produce the most sensational headlines they could manage

Firstly, Mr Ian Watmore FA Chief Executive (and reportedly a big Arsenal fan) comments that the disciplinary commission will be having a good look at both incidents. Which is fine given his role but then he has to add 'I was pretty unimpressed'. Very reassuring for all those that want an unbiased approach by out footballing judicial masters and rather like the Chief Justice saying the 'accused will get a fair trial even though he's plainly guilty of the most horrendous of crimes'

Secondly, we have Richard Scudamore of the Premier League who proved himself totally incapable of maintaining a neutral position before the judicial process was complete by saying that Adebayor has 'hurt our image and brought shame on the game'. That was obviously intended to put more pressure on the disciplinary commission and perhaps a lynching might be more to Mr Scudamore's taste. Let's just hope his sense of justice is never questioned as it would be found sadly wanting.

Thirdly, we have Arsenal Football Club for it was they would sanctioned the usage of their official website for the attack on his fellow professional by Van Persie. Now this is a very sinister development in inter club relationships and is even worse than a player trying to get another one booked by waving an imaginary card in front of the referee.

Now we have a mechanism by which one club is trying to get the players from another banned from games. Perhaps next Arsenal might take a full page advert in the Times or a TV commercial to make their pleas and just think Arsenal FC were once regarded as the bastion of respectability. Sorry Arsenal FC you have been shown as sneaky and stab in the back merchants, particularly as your fans were hardly innocent of using vile and racist chants or of throwing missiles on the pitch and Mr Van Persie's tackle hardly came from the fair play manual.

Then we have some fellow that was an ex-Metropolitan Police Commander (and probably a rabid Arsenal fan) called John O'Connor, that some hack has no doubt found in a North London watering hole drowning his sorrows. He was quoted as saying 'I'm sure the police will want Adebayor to be made an example of...hic...'

Thank goodness the current Commissioner of the Met Police is a Tottenham fan or no doubt he would have called it a riot and the boys in blue would have been racing up to Manchester in their vans with batons at the ready and a warrant for Adebayor's arrest.

We then have Manchester United football club and that bastion of good taste and fair play Piers Morgan throwing in their two penny worth and finally a galaxy of hacks with their sensational copy. If you read them at face value you would think that Mr Adebayor had raped, pillaged and committed treason before blowing up FA headquarters with a nuclear warhead.

What did he actually do...erm celebrate a goal he had scored in front of a crowd of people who had abused him for 70 odd minutes and then allegedly stamp on a player that had tacked him studs up and if he had made contact could have ended his season if not his career.

Please also note that I did say 'allegedly' because I defy anyone watching the 'incident' at normal speed to say it was a stamp. No commentator did, the referee didn't and none of the crowd did. It was only when the slow mo was shown that the lynch mob took shape.

From my point of view when you are unbalanced by a studs up tackle, it is hard to keep your total balance and your feet can go anywhere. Yes they can go into a stamp or they can try and avoid your opponents hand or they can accidentally make contact.

The process of justice will decide this but how can it, when the head of the FA, the head of the Premier League, Arsenal FC and our tawdry Fifth Estate have already decided the outcome? Shame on the lot of them and particularly messrs Scudamore and Watmore as they are clearly not fit for their positions and are merely puppets mouthing what the faceless power merchants behind them require.

The most important thing for Manchester City FC is to recognise what your are up against in terms of the footballing establishment and to stick together and to have a siege mentality as you will need it in the months ahead. Chelsea were similarly treated and this proved to be an effective response. I just hope those that run MCFC do not suck up to these people and just accept the over the top punishment that will be meted out and then carry on regardless.

Our time will come and then these people will suddenly become all positive - hideous but true I am afraid.

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S'funny - I just sent a somewhat similar article in, concerning the media and City in general. But you are right of course, it does seem (even if not true) that the FA are being pushed into only one direction, by the countless voices.

He's a disgrace and should have a ten match ban at least. What he did was totally unacceptable. Van Persie will be scarred and provoking the fans like that evidently identified massive insecurities about his Arsenal years. the blokes a doughnut and has made himself and his club look like clowns.

leelindsay isnt that a girls name?, arsenal are a disgrace the press incited all the trouble that the arsenal fans caused they acted like animals just because someone scores against them, ask your board to spend some of the 100s of millions they have earned from the sale of players and then maybe you might not be so bitter when players leave your trampy club who refuse to pay above 1990s wages you are the most bitter and twisted fans ive ever met and your bitter at your board but take it out on outgoing players because there an easy target TELL YOUR BOARD TO SPEND SOME CASH THEN THE ARSENAL FANS MIGHT BE ABIT HAPPIER AND MIGHT NOT BE SO BITTER TOWARDS EX PLAYERS

He should get banned for the stamp on RVP. I hate Arsenal with a passion, but they have every reason to be angered by his assault. Anyone (and it does seem like alot of you) who thinks otherwise really needs to take off their light blue tinted specs!

huddyiddo we all agree he should get banned but what we dont agree on is the time honoured kickin the press keep giving us constant anti city dribble being wrote, the press get the arsenal fans worked up into a frenzy and so the press should take some of the blame

Yeah, i saw all the journos in the away end working us up. The bloke's clearly a disgusting human being, i can't wait for a year or two's time when you all realise this. So *****in naive the lot of you, you've been propelled up to these heights with no *****ing respect for how other teams have got there. Chavs of the North.

It was a 3 match ban challenge... there's been much worse and not hardly as much press. To blame Adebayor for some of the Arsenal fans turning into racist thuigs though is naive and I'm appalled no action is being taken against Van Persie for his red card challenge in the same incident... his running up to the city fans and swearing when he scored and the fans themselves for their disgraceful behaviour.

MCFC goatboy, Mark MCFC andf anyone else. You all act like their is this big anti city thing going on and everyone has it in for you. Lets be honest with eachother here. Arsenal, Liverpool, Man United, Chelsea and now City all think their is a big conspiracy against their club. And small clubs all think their is bias towards the big clubs. We (arsenal) have done it with the Eduardo incident, Fabregas spitting incident etc. Chelsea with the stuff against them in the champions league final, Liverpools goal against them in the champions league, fines they have received for not controlling their players. Liverpool with the claim United get away with everything, hillsborough etc. And Ferguson has the biggest chip on his shoulder ever. We all like to think the world is against us, but you guys take it to a new level ona daily basis.

Paul_ownz, how many times has the telegraph printed 5 - thats FIVE - articles condemning your club in one day? The fact of the matter is that quite a few journalists support one of the big 4 clubs (as related to me by a sports journalist who writes for both the Mail and several local papers) and have been doing all they can to destabilise Manchester City once they realised we were a threat to the established order. Thinly veiled anti-Arab propaganda has been the undertone of many of the attacks, and the usual suspects (ie the tabloids) have been joined by the broad sheets in feeling free to have a go at us. I'm sure that any club that had become "the plaything of dirty arab oil money" would be on the receiving end of such a sustained attack, we just had the misfortune to be that club. We've heard all manner of libelllous statements, and our owners have had to theaten the |sun with legal action on TWO occasions for printing falsehoods. SO to suggest that we are the instigators of some huge conspiracy theory is to ignore the crap we've had to put up with for the past year. You'd better ust hope it doesn't happen to your club.

Quite agree with you fifthcolumnblue. The only paper I believe that has been evenly balanced has been the Times but the rest have been embarrasingly biased. The worst has to be the Manchester Evening News whose coverage and criticism of City is just criminal. However we all have to be a little patient because as they say sticks and stones don't hurt you and soon we will have a lot of positives to shout about. Just have the belief.

i find it amusing that after years of mediocrity all of a sudden you all think that your a great club, all because a few blokes in white dresses have decided to take over your club,and you are so deluded to think that money can buy success you must remember that form is temporary, but class is permament just stop and think, the city of manchester hasnt got any premier league clubs any more, just 2 P.L.Cs run by arabs and americans enough said

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